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Looking for one of the best Wacom tablets? You are in a good relationship. Wacom is the standard in many creative industries, from digital art to animation and printmaking, and has a well-deserved reputation for making some of the best digital canvases in the business.
In the past, Wacom tools were only for professional artists and designers, and their price tag was second to none. That’s no longer the case, and while Wacom still sells plenty of professional tools with pro-spec price tags, it’s also stocked up with affordable tablets that are perfect for beginners.
Look at any list of the best drawing tablets (including our pick) and you’ll see that Wacom is well represented. We’ve put together this guide to help those who know they want a Wacom to narrow down their tablet choices – it’s just a matter of choosing which one!
We’ve tested many of these pills ourselves, so check out our full reviews. In some cases we haven’t had hands-on experience, we’ve made judgments based on industry reputation and reviews. See How we test for more details on our process.
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The important thing when choosing the best Wacom tablet is that you are choosing between two main categories. High-end tablets are called pen displays – meaning they have their own screens. Graphics tablets, on the other hand, are simple drawing surfaces that need to be connected to another display to allow you to see what you are. to draw. The latter are more portable and cheaper, which makes them better for beginners and casual users.
The Wacom range has a bit more variation – for example the MobileStudio range, which are essentially desktop computers in the form of a drawing tablet, or the Bamboo Slate, which is a fun digital/analog writing pad. But we’ll cover all of that as we get to each product – so let’s get down to the best Wacom tablets you can buy.
We believe the Wacom Cintiq 22 will be the best Wacom drawing tablet for most users and purposes. Delivering a premium photography experience on a tablet at a truly reasonable price, it’s an excellent choice all things considered. You can get more bang for your buck by looking at other brands like the XP-Pen or Huion, but Wacom’s commitment to quality makes it a smoother and more enjoyable tablet to use.
The premium Pro Pen 2 that comes with the tablet is one of the best styluses around (certainly not the Pro Pen 3 that comes with the new Cintiq Pro tablets) and it never needs charging. With pressure and tilt sensitivity, it gives you real drawing flexibility and the level of “tooth” on the stylus is just right.
The display is only Full HD, not QHD or 4K. In fact, for most users this will be fine – the pixels are enough. However, it’s the same resolution as the smaller Wacom Cintiq 16, so it’s a compelling alternative if you don’t mind sacrificing a bit of drawing space in favor of a sharper image.
Read our full Wacom Cintiq 22 review.
The Wacom Intuos Pro is a graphics tablet, not a pen display, so you’ll need to connect it to an external display such as a tablet or monitor. Once this is done – and the setup process is very intuitive and simple – you have a very effective photography tablet in your hands, and it comes at a great price.
With the ultra-sensitive Wacom Pro Pen 2 in your hand, you can digitally draw, paint, and sculpt to your heart’s content with no noticeable lag and a desirable 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity. In our review, we found the Intuos Pro to provide an intuitive drawing experience once we tuned it to our liking. It’s easy to put in a bag and the battery generally lasts a day, so it’s a good choice for creative freelancers on the go. The medium version of the Intuos Pro offers the best balance of price and shooting space for our money, but there’s also a Small and a Large.
Read our Wacom Intuos Pro review to learn more.
The new granddaddy of the Wacom range, announced in September 2022, the Cintiq Pro 27 has a much more advanced display – a true 10-bit 4K reference quality unit, the same as a premium monitor. It’s the biggest tablet in the current family, with a 27-inch digital canvas, but despite that, it actually has slightly slimmer bezels and an overall sleeker design than its predecessor, the Cintiq Pro 24.
It pairs with the new and highly customizable Wacom Pro Pen 3, allowing the user to customize the balance, weight and barrel size to tailor the drawing experience. With a 120Hz refresh rate and multi-touch functionality (allowing you to pinch, zoom, etc.), the Cintiq Pro 27 is ideal for technically demanding digital art projects like animation and 3D modeling. It’s every bit as expensive, a professional tool as you’d expect, and we don’t mind the issue – but we have to say, charging an extra £500/$500 for a special stand is ridiculous. A monitor arm or VESA wall mount will also work.
So let’s get one thing straight. It’s the Wacom One, a creative pen display that means it has its own screen. Not to be confused with the Wacom “One by Wacom” which is a graphics tablet. It’s really fair. Who could mix these two things?
Just kidding, Wacom offers a pen display for beginners and those new to digital art, and it makes a great on-ramp with its affordable price and easy-to-use interface. It’s a great choice for photo editing—that is, for users who don’t need the finesse required for digital art software and can handle a less sophisticated stylus than the Pro Pen 2 that comes with Cintiq models, plus a few more connectors than you’d like. cable.
Read our Wacom One review.
It’s a breed apart from the usual Wacom drawing surfaces – the MobileStudio Pro is a stand-alone tablet PC with near-desktop performance thanks to an Intel processor. It can run all your drawing apps on its own – basically, as the name suggests, it can act as an all-in-one photo studio. It also works really well as part of a wider workflow, easily connecting to a Mac or PC thanks to its high-speed USB-C and Thunderbolt connectors. While the drawing experience is excellent (not always), the Pro Pen 2 has a highly artistic feel. It’s a pricey proposition, and most people won’t need that much power – if you can give up a few inches of screen real estate, the MobileStudio Pro 13 is a bit cheaper.
Read our Wacom MobileStudio Pro review to learn more.
If you’re someone who always leaves notes around the house and then forgets where they are (guilty), the Wacom Bamboo Slate is a great way to stay organized. It differs from other Wacom tablets in that it is actually a hybrid of analog and digital. You place your notebook paper on the surface of the tablet and then write with a regular pen. The tablet will then digitize your handwritten notes. Very neat! The companion app works with many systems including Android, iOS, Windows and Mac OS. There are several different sizes and types of bamboo slate, but we choose the smallest and cheapest. With 1024 levels of pen pressure, it’s relatively uncomplicated and better for writing than a serious art tool.
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